Review: Jon Connor's "While You Were Sleeping"

In his latest mixtape offering, Jon Connor displays the gritty wordplay he is renowned for. His ability to carry actual songs with features, and not just spit bars, is what is actually the showcase for the tape.

“You gon’ find/in every line I rhyme/is
shit you can’t define/This is passion,” Jon Connor boasts in the opening
namesake track While You Were Sleeping.
Passion may be tough to peg, but this Flint, Michigan up-and-comer has
definitely chiselled out an impression in his latest release­. Looks like the
all-nighters are paying off.

The key word here is concentration. July’s
mixtape premieres as one of Jon Connor’s shortest yet, with the largest set of
collaborations. On top of regular All Varsity contributors like Optix and
Brandon Bars, Michigan listeners will recognize their fellow natives Craig
Owens, Mikey Wallace, and one half of the classic Ready for the World, Melvin
Riley, in the mix.

The People’s Rapper takes Flint from its
Old Skool MC Breed/Dayton Family roots, and into the wider breadth American of
hip hop, with treats from Texas (Killa Kyleon, Bun B), Cali (Lia Mack, Kid Ink,
Mistah F.A.B.) and Chicago (GLC). He even toes into international waters with
Netherlands House DJ D Wayne, joined by suave-sounding Mr. Riley for a soulful from-the-hood
narrative “Same Change,” worth more than one listen.

A grittier sound can be found in
“Scriptures” and “Burn Notice,” as well as “Never Left,” four minutes of proof
that Connor still has the quick mouth to more than hold his own over heavy
production quality. To zone in on his rhyming, check out “Diamonds,” and the
ironically named “Dubby, ” in which the emcee goes practically hoarse. His
claim to “runs fifteen minutes long” loses no plausibility here.

No doubt, the man’s made his name as a spitter,
ballsy enough to pull off raps over his biggest idols’ tracks, from Nas to
Jay-Z to Eminem, and circulate them as his own World’s Greatest series. But this
Flintstone’s said before that he aims to be as much a ‘music man’ as a ‘rap man.’

“Don’t Wanna Be” feat Lia Mack shows World’s
Greatest Music producers walking the walk, and in unlikely places. The eclectic
beat samples the guitar riff from Judy Clay and William Bell’s ‘60s soul track “Private
Number,” and syncs it with a loop of sped-up chipmunks chorus from contemporary
pop-rocker Gavin DeGraw’s hit “I Don’t Want to Be.” With such an uncanny-good
combo of past and present, Jon Connor the artist lives up to his sci-fi
time-warping backstory (read: The Terminator messiah).

R&B-flavored “Something I Know”,
further backs up the music man credit– dude actually sings on the recording.
The vocals, though simple, are smooth enough to make the girls up and take notice.
“TGIF” could make it as a club number, but while Connor and Killa Kyleon’s runs
here are solid enough, the chorus lacks in originality points.

Each track has ample follow-through, but if
the repertoire lacks any dynamism, it’s in the topic matter. Sticking to theme
is great, but surely Michigan’s got more to talk about than just burning the
midnight oil. It might pay to stray more
from universals and dig deeper into his history.

From dubbing himself Terminator prodigy, to
spoofing Vinnie Chase and the kid Chris Rock, Jon Connor has taken on an
expanse of personas. While You Were
Sleeping sees the artist start to solidify his name beyond these references.
That’s a step for someone whose Wikipedia page has been written and deleted
twice.